World Cup Qualifying - AFC (Cycle 0)
Format The Asian Football Confederation (AFC), for the Cycle 0 World Cup, receives four direct berths from qualifying, and a possible fifth spot through an intercontinental play-off. Qualification begins with two rounds of two-leg knockout qualification rounds, reducing the number of teams to 20. The third stage consists of 5 groups of 4 teams, with the top 2 teams in each group advancing into 2 groups of 5 teams. The top two teams from those groups directly qualify for the World Cup, while the two third-place teams will compete in a play-off for the spot in the intercontinental play-off. Entrants 45 of the 46 AFC national teams entered qualification. The ranking of teams that determines qualification rounds works as follows: *Teams ranked 1-5 receive an automatic bye to the third round. The four AFC World Cup teams and the AFC intercontinental play-off representative from 2010 make up this list. *Teams ranked 6-25 receive an automatic bye to the second round. This consists of teams that advanced beyond the first round of qualifying in 2010, and the first round losers with the "best" results. *Teams ranked 26-45 enter at the first round. *Brunei Darussalam is not participating in the Cycle 0 World Cup. First Round The first round consists of ten home-and-away ties, featuring the 20 lowest ranked teams. The winners of these ties proceed to the second round. 'Seeding' Teams are seeded into two pots: Pot 1 includes teams ranked 26-35 and Pot 2 includes teams ranked 36-45. 'Matches' |} Second Round The second round consists of fifteen home-and-away ties, featuring the 10 winners from the first round and the 20 teams ranked 6-25. The winners of these ties proceed to the third round. 'Seeding' Teams are seeded into two pots: Pot 1 includes teams ranked 6-20 and Pot 2 includes teams ranked 21-25 and the 10 winners from the first round. 'Matches' |} Third Round The third round consists of the fifteen winners from the second round joining the teams ranked 1-5. The teams are drawn into 5 groups of 4, and the top two teams from each group proceed to the fourth round. 'Seeding' The seeding for the third round is based on the July 2011 FIFA rankings. The 20 teams are separated into 4 pots of 5 teams each. 'Group A' 'Group B' 'Group C' 'Group D' 'Group E' Fourth Round The fourth round consists of the group winners and runners up from the third round. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the World Cup, while the two third-place teams advance to the fifth round. 'Seeding' Like the third round, teams are seeded based on the July 2011 FIFA rankings. The ten teams will be placed into 5 pots of 2 teams. 'Group A' 'Group B' Fifth Round Teams finishing third place in the fourth round will compete in a home-and-away series. The winner will advance to the intercontinental play-off. |} Intercontinental play-off Main article: World Cup Qualifying - Intercontinental play-offs (Cycle 0) The fifth round winner will take part in this round. |} ----